"Webbiquity" is about being everywhere online when and where buyers are looking for what you sell. It's what I help B2B clients achieve through a coordinated strategy of SEO, search marketing, social media, brand management, content marketing, and influencer relations, supported by the right marketing technology.

After writing 60+ additional blog posts since October, I find these lessons even more important today than back then.

In Taekwondo, students are taught they must perform each kick at least 1,000 times before they can safely say they have learned the kick perfectly.

I’m not sure I craft “perfect” blog posts even after writing 1,000 of them—but I’ve certainly learned a few things.

(For the record: I wrote 440 posts on the Blogger-based WebMarketCentral blog between 2005 and 2010, and have now published 560 posts here on Webbiquity. Hence, 440+560=1,000. It’s true there have been guest posts published here, but those have been balanced out by posts I’ve written for other blogs.)

If you were asked to name the top thought leaders in marketing today–the 10 marketers you’d definitely advise others to follow on social media–how would you proceed?

You’d probably start by looking at those you’re connected with on the major social networks, then do some additional research. Perhaps you’d look at existing “top” lists from other sites. You’d develop a “long list” of worthy experts, then gradually narrow it down based on followers, level of engagement, quality of posts, and other factors. You’d carefully develop your final list, possibly using a method like pairwise ranking.

But—what if you had to answer on the spot? What if you had to respond immediately, or within just a few minutes? You’d forget some important names, of course, but your answers would reveal those you keep top of mind.

If you’re up for it, try this now; spend no more than five minutes listing your top 10—then come back to this post.

This recently happened to me. Below is my list in response to the question:

“Tell me the top ten marketing people you would follow on social media, those people that you think are the top ‘thought leaders’ in the marketing space today?”

Cheryl Burgess would unquestionably be on the list. In addition to being an expert on enterprise b2b marketing, she’s the co-author (with Mark Burgess) of The Social Employee, and the authority on how to inspire employee social media advocacy inside large organizations.

Meghan M. Biro is an acknowledged thought leader at the intersection of HR, social media and marketing.

Carla Johnson is one of the top experts on enterprise content marketing. Plus, she went to grade school in a one-room schoolhouse, making her ascent all the more impressive (or perhaps that just explains it?).

Jeff Bullas — does anyone know more about blogging than Jeff? He’s one of those guys who seems to defy the laws of time and space by being able to consistently churn out bookmark-worthy blog posts, speak at events all over the planet, write ebooks, and still engage actively and prolifically on social media.

J-P De Clerck is a “digital business and marketing strategist” whose expertise stands in the crossroads of content, search, and social media. Plus he’s from Belgium, so along with Jeff Bullas (Australia) he keeps this list from being too U.S.-centric.

From humble beginnings, Twitter has grown to become an indispensable source for online news alerts as well as a vital marketing tool. The microblogging site now boasts more than 255 million monthly active users, and 53% of Twitter users recommend products in their tweets at some time.

Image credit: Buffer

As its popularity and user base grows, techniques for getting the most out of Twitter, third-party tools that add special-purpose value, and the platform itself continue to evolve.

Given the increasing level of social media noise, which advanced practices are most helpful for Twitter marketers today? How can brands and individuals make their tweets stand out? What are the most effective techniques and tools for increasing engagement and growing one’s Twitter following? How can marketers best utilize Twitter’s expanded features and the latest tools?

Find the answers to those questions and others here in more than three dozen expert Twitter marketing guides from top social media pros.

Expert Twitter Marketing Tips and Tactics

The simply awesome Lisa Buyer demonstrates eight ways to boost the visibility of your tweets, from pinning “your Tweet to the top of your profile before your event or to highlight your news for the week” and changing your logo or profile image to highlight a holiday or cause to using “Canva to create a variety of visuals to promote your most recent blog post and rotate them out using a platform like Buffer. Same story, different visual.”

Danny Schreiber provides instruction on “some of the best ways you can put Twitter search to use for your business, along with some tools that’ll help you learn more from Tweets, identify trends, (and) see how your Tweets are impacting your business,” among them: using Twitter advanced search to monitor brand mentions; monitoring sentiment about a competitor (“only search for those Tweets with one condition: individuals unhappy with the company”); and building a Twitter list of potential customers.

Ruby Rusine serves up a creative and useful list of Twitter tips, literally from A to Z, beginning with tips for automating posts, being consistent, and clear expectation-setting and progressing through the letter Z: “Zero in on strategies that will help you attain your marketing goal/s. It is one thing to engage; but it is another to get people do what you want them to do.”

Asking “Do people pay attention to your tweets?,” frequent best-of honoree Aaron Lee offers six techniques to increase the impact of your tweets, from setting “yourself apart by adding your own opinion, question or other commentary to” your retweets in order to give your followers context, to simply talking to people (“While everyone else is busy shouting his or her own message, you’ll be the one listening so you can make a better connection”).

Jacob Pastrovich reveals the three major ways he uses Twitter to engage with audiences, along with tips and ideas for each, for example: “I schedule posts to go out over the next week or so, usually around five tweets for each piece of original content. You can…do this using tools like HootSuite, Buffer, TweetDeck, or something else…The reason I schedule tweets with the same link is to make sure each post reaches multiple time zones and as much of our audience as possible, because some people might check their feed at 8am, others at 6pm, and we just want to make sure that each post has the chance to get in front of all of our followers’ eyeballs. Just make sure your tweets don’t all have the same copy. Make it fun, and switch it up as much as possible.”

Kevan Lee briefly lists a half-dozen tips helpful to Twitter users of any experience level, then goes deeper into a larger set of recommendations for advanced Twitter users, starting with understanding how Twitter fits into your priorities and customizing the email notifications you get from Twitter and progressing through cleaning up the list of those you follow, using tools like ManageFlitter.

Here are sixteen tips for Twitter marketing success, such as following competitors, using the list function to “target different groups with a specific message or angle,” and finding the best times to tweet based on when your followers are online: “Use tools (like Tweriod) to determine the best times of day to tweet.”

Frank Strong presents a whimsical yet useful infographic guide to Twitter in Dr. Seuss style rhyme and illustrations, produced by HootSuite. Among the five tips for growing one’s Twitter following and influence: “First, let Tweets breathe. Give your message some time. Clogging up feeds has no reason or rhyme. If you send Tweets too much, you’ll risk looking like spam. But not the good kind you fry, with green eggs and ham.”

Lauren Kaye shares a handful of helpful Twitter engagement tips in this short but smart post, among them engaging like eBay (“As the company with the highest engagement score, eBay’s Twitter feed should be the glowing example for social strategies. And a first glance at the brand’s content reveals the key to eBay’s success is giving followers what they’d expect”) and catching eyes with visuals like Nokia (“posts containing pictures and links receive 150 percent more engagement than average posts”).

The delightful Sue Brady takes a deep “dive into using Twitter and increasing your presence there.” Though aimed primarily at those relatively new to Twitter, it’s worth perusing even for experience Twitterers. She walks through choosing your subject matter, using hashtags, finding industry experts, and growing a following (for example, by attending relevant tweet chats).

Dr. William J. Ward showcases an infographic illustrating some basic facts about Twitter (e.g., a third of all Twitter users follow at least one brand, and 67% of them are more likely to buy from brands they follow), when to tweet, what to tweet (“engagement is 200% for tweets with image links”), and “unsaid Tweeting rules.”

How to Build a Twitter Following

Roy Povarchik shares “advanced tips and tricks to more followers and increased engagement on Twitter,” such as using tools like Tweepi to “get tons of followers but also make sure you have a qualified and engaged following,” following back only accounts that interest you, and—to keep your timeline clean—setting up the “five lists every marketer should create.”

Reginald Chan shares a dozen practical and actionable tips for growing your Twitter following, from using a smiling face in your profile (“A smiling face picture can increase followers rate by over 10%”) and creating a custom “About Me” page as your primary account link through focusing more on quality than quantity in your Tweets and practicing “strategic following” (as he demonstrates in an eight-minute video here).

Jim Dougherty promises and delivers not just “another article about how to get more Twitter followers…(but) pragmatism. No touchy-feely gobbly-gook – just some straightforward tools (bookended with some cynicism) to help you grow your Twitter followers.” He walks through how to use tools like justunfollow, manageflitter, and socialbro (as well as Twitter advertising) to help quickly build a targeted Twitter following ( with some work).

Kim Garst presents “20 quick and easy steps to help you build a huge, targeted Twitter following” in less than a half-hour per day, from scheduling some of your tweets to maintain an active flow when you can’t be at your computer and using Twitter directories like Wefollow and Twellow to recommending others and using Twitter search to find and follow “people who are talking about your brand, your products, or about something around your niche.”

Expert Guides to Twitter Stats and Analytics

Suzanne Delzio passes along results from four recent research studies indicating a bright future for Twitter. Among the findings: according to Pew Research, “from 2013 to 2014, Twitter’s audience rose by 27.7% (from 18% to 23% of all Internet users),” and “in a 2014 study by eMarketer, researchers estimate Twitter will grow by 5% to 10% year over year until 2018 when 24.2% of Internet users will be on the platform.”

Kevan Lee (again) presents his list of the “15 most useful Twitter stats used by the pros…as well as how you can find these stats for your Twitter profile.” His list ranges from how to discover the top interests of your followers and who your followers are following to level of engagement (retweets and favorites) and tweet reach percentage (how many of your followers you actually reach).

Ian Cleary outlines four questions to ask to help determine if (and how well) your Twitter marketing strategy is working, and how to gather the supporting metrics to answer each one. For example: to answer the question “Is Twitter driving relevant traffic back to your website?”, he shows how to use Google Analytics custom segments and goals to analyze the engagement and conversions of Twitter-driven site traffic and compare it to other sources.

Alex Bossenger shows how to use Twitter analytics to “find the data you need to track your campaign success” in this richly illustrated post. He explains the importance of and how to use the Twitter dashboard, followers dashboard, how to manage user profiles, and even how to switch between managed accounts if you use your Twitter handle to manage multiple Twitter accounts.

Mitt Ray shares an infographic featuring 15 Twitter stats to help you “get better results on Twitter…(including) statistics that can be used to get more retweets, clicks on the links you share and followers.” Among the stats: tweets with open and close quotes are 30% more likely to be retweeted than those without (who knew?); tweets including numbers get 17% more retweets; and tweets that contain links shortended using Bit.ly are about 9% more likely to be retweeted.

Guides to Using Twitter Features

Neil Patel offers instructions for 15 Twitter “hacks” to become a power user, from creating follow lists and discovering which lists you are on (“From your lists page, click on ‘Member of.’ Knowing what lists you’re on gives you an idea of how you’re perceived on Twitter”) to managing the apps that have access to your Twitter account and a full list of Twitter keyboard shortcuts.

Though much of what’s covered here (using Twitter advanced search operators, keyboard shortcuts, timing tweets) is detailed in other posts in this collection, Greg Kihlstrom adds his own unique spin, and includes one “hack’ not explained elsewhere: “If you’re ready to move to the next level, get ready to use Twitter to perform real-world tasks. Whether you want it to make a pot of coffee or operate a remote dog feeder, working with Twitter’s API opens up a whole new world of possibilities.”

Though these features are no longer “new,” the detail provided here by Mike Lewis is helpful. He details the “what” and “how to” of Twitter capabilities like “best tweets,” “pinned tweets” (“the ability to ‘Pin’ or feature one of your tweets at the top of your profile stream so visitors to your profile see it immediately”), filtered tweets, and the new look of follower / following lists.

Pointing out that “Although photo tweets do a great job captivating our audiences, it can be a challenge for social media marketers to schedule visual content ahead of time. Platforms like Hootsuite let you schedule photo tweets, but they don’t appear expanded in the feed like a direct upload would,” Travis Bernard explains, step by step, how to “schedule a photo tweet from the native Twitter client.”

Carolyn Nicander Mohr explains how Twitter’s photo tagging capability works, noting that you no longer “have to waste any of your precious 140 characters with @TwitterID’s. Instead you can tag someone in the photo and free up space for more words, hashtags and links.” She also explains how this potentially impacts privacy, and how to change your settings if you’d rather not be tagged in just any photo on Twitter.

Aaron Lee (again) talks about “10 brilliant ways to use Twitter Lists to always be engaging,” from the basics of creating lists and who you should add to them (influencers, retweeters, co-workers, etc.) to how to follow tweets based on conversations and interests using Flipboard.

While acknowledging that “The favorite button is not Twitter’s most popular feature, and it doesn’t get as much press as retweeting,” Lauren Dugan nevertheless makes her case for its growing popularity, explaining a handful of different uses for favorites, such as to save links, pay it forward, or to network (“Using favorites, you can mark the tweets from the people you want to network with, and make sure you follow up with them about their tweet shortly”).

Going beyond Lauren’s post above, Chris Lake explores 20 ways of using the “favorites” button, including liking something (obviously), disliking a tweet (using the favorites button sarcastically), to bookmark a tweet, to trigger some further action using IFTTT, to attract more followers, build a personal brand, and other purposes that may never have occurred to you.

Best Guides to Twitter Tools

Guru-ess of online tools and frequent best-of honoree Ann Smarty reports on five data mining tools “you can take advantage of to archive your own Twitter data,” among them BirdSong Analytics (“an absolutely unique tool that lets you download all the followers of any Twitter accounts. It’s a paid tool but I don’t think such feature has any alternatives”) and NodeXL (which enables you to take “archived data from Twitter, input it into NodeXL, and create a breathtaking visual representation of your tweets from any period you like”).

Michael Patterson showcases nine helpful tools for finding hashtags that are relevant to your brand, including Hashtags.org, #tagdef (“essentially a combined dictionary/thesaurus for trending hashtags”), and Tagboard (“one of the most aesthetically pleasing of all of the hashtag research sites. For each ‘Tagboard’ you create, you specify a specific hashtag for it to track. Tagboard then displays popular posts containing that hashtag on a board”) and others.

Brad Knutson offers a detailed, six-step guide to creating a Twitter content using Zapier, from getting set up and modifying your settings through connecting your Twitter and Google Docs accounts, selecting your content hashtag, and testing the “zap” (“After I created this Zap, I essentially just let the contest go in the background, and after it was all said and done, I used the spreadsheet to randomly select the winner. It took me longer to set up the Zap than it did to actually monitor and maintain the contest”).

Garin Kilpatrick reviews 10 tools “designed to add value by presenting a different way to visualize or analyze your tweets, the people in your network, and the tweets from the people in your network,” including Tweet Archivist, Twitonomy, Twitter Counter (“a way to visualize and track the growth of your own followers, and even compare your growth to the growth of other users”), and Tweetstats.

Eva Gantz writes about her handful of “absolute favorite Twitter tools to save you time and energy, and let you get back to running your business,” including UnTweeps (“UnTweeps lets you improve your following-to-followers ratio (i.e., I’m following 1500 people, and 2000 people are following me) with minimal effort. It simply auto-unfollows any account that hasn’t tweeted in x amount of days”) and Twubs for tracking hashtags.

Aaron Lee (once more) helps readers of this post “discover five easy-to-use Twitter tools that make it simple and fast for readers to spread the word about your newest blog content.” Four of the five are WordPress plugins; the other is ClickToTweet.com, a website that lets you “install a prepopulated tweet and use your own call to action in your blog post…you can use it on blogging platforms besides WordPress, in PDFs and in your newsletters.”

Ann Smarty (again) highlights five “great apps that will let you get the proper stats to start engaging your followers in a real and dynamic way,” among them BirdSong Analytics: “Do a quick analytics search of any social media profile and find out exactly what conversations your brand is generating. That includes through followers, who you can target more efficiently while still improving your visibility for reaching out to new demographics.”

Ann Smarty (once more) writes, “hashtags are everywhere…you can use them for any number of things, but you always want to do so smartly. These tools will help you out,” such as TwChat, a tool for managing tweetchats “which turns a collection of hashtags into a chatroom.” Furthermore, she notes, TwChat is “very simple, free, and no downloads are required.”

Ericson Ay Mires serves up brief reviews of nearly four dozen tools for tweet scheduling, social media management / monitoring, content sharing, follower management, Twitter profile design, Twitter research, WordPress plugins, creating “rich tweets,” and bonus Twitter tools such “Group Tweet – Group tweet enables you and several other people to tweet from the same twitter account while maintaining your individual user name. If you run a business that requires lots of people to tweet, don’t miss this one.”

And Finally…Twitter Skepticism

Journalist Derek Thompson details his experiment in using Twitter Analytics to determine the value of his tweets in driving web traffic to the publication that employs him. His conclusion? “In the last month, I’ve created nearly 2 million impressions for Twitter. Whether that is good for my Twitter persona and my pride is a qualitative question whose answer resides outside the bounds of an analytics dashboard. But it is quantitatively…” (see the article for the actual metrics).

As noted in several of the posts highlighted below, LinkedIn is no longer just a hangout for job-seeking professionals, who largely abandon it in between job searches. A wave of changes over the past couple of years have transformed it into a major publishing hub, a platform for personal branding, and a place to ask and answer questions from like-minded professionals across nearly 2 million LinkedIn groups.

Image credit: Cox Business

What’s more, as reported here previously, LinkedIn is the top social network for B2B marketing; 83% of marketers say they prefer to use LinkedIn for distributing B2B content. And yes, it’s still a key site for job seekers and employers—91 of the Fortune 100 companies (along with thousands of smaller firms) use LinkedIn for candidate searches.

The site’s expanded features have created new opportunities, but using all of these new features—and using them effectively—can be challenging. What type of content works best on LinkedIn? How can you maximize the exposure of your content published there? How can you make the most of LinkedIn groups? How does LinkedIn advanced search work? What are the best practices for utilizing Showcase pages?

Find the answers to those questions and many others here in more than two dozen of the best LinkedIn guides of the past year.

Guides to Publishing on LinkedIn

LinkedIn expert Viveka von Rosen shares half a dozen “best practices for publishing your posts to LinkedIn for more visibility,” including knowing the elements of a good post (“A catchy title…Attractive images…Good marketing/sharing strategy for your post…Luck”) and deciding what to publish (“writing posts about LinkedIn influencers or influential people in your industry is a good place to start. If they decide to share your post with their network… kaboom! It might go viral”).

Writing that “Whatever your style, your subject, your background, we’ve made it easier than ever to share insights and ideas with the world in a blog post,” Akshay Kothari shares tips for making the most of LinkedIn’s redesigned publishing features, from picking a vibrant visual (adding a “cover photo to make your post stand out”) to concentrating more on the quality of the content than any certain length.

Kevin J. Allen passes along 10 tips for LinkedIn publishing success based on a study of “3,000 of the highest performing pieces of content published on LinkedIn.” Among the recommendations: keep headlines under 50 characters; use multiple images; don’t be afraid of long posts (those with 1,900-2,000 words do well); don’t use questions as headlines; and publish on Thursdays.

Anyone can now publish on LinkedIn, but not everyone should–at least not without knowing the ropes. Social media expert Neal Schaffer explains the main features, including headings, formatting, quotes, links, and visuals.

Moving beyond the basics in Neal’s post above, Kevan Lee shares some compelling stats about LinkedIn (e.g., “LinkedIn sends nearly four times more people to your homepage than Twitter and Facebook”) and explains how to take advantage of each finding (for example, “6 out of every 10 LinkedIn users are interested in industry insights”–so “industry and company insights should compose a fair majority of your posted content, and the overall content plan should feel relevant and actionable to your followers”).

Building upon the guidance from Viveka von Rosen above, Gregory Ciotti offers advanced tips for gaining larger readership on LinkedIn, using tactics such as “channel stacking: publish (or stack) topics on different days of the week,” researching winning topics, and planning publishing times to hit peak hours.

Frequent best-of honoree Heidi Cohen showcases several key statistics about LinkedIn publishing (such as that “LinkedIn content pages attract 7 times more views than the job pages because people only check job pages when they’re seeking a new job”), then explains how to take action to capitalize on each finding or observation.

Mike Bailey details four valuable tactics for making the most of publishing on LinkedIn, while not succumbing to “the temptation to exploit a shiny new promotional tool.” His first tip is to share your expertise, as this is a common thread among highly engaging influencer posts: “Authors with hard business advice to offer are the ones who are read most often and generate the most engagement, with posts on ‘spotting talent,’ ‘acting ethically,’ ‘leading with purpose,’ and ‘building company culture’ topping the popularity list.”

Guides to Using LinkedIn Groups

Melonie Dodaro explains how to find groups using keywords, “look under the hood” at group statistics to help narrow the list, determine what a “good” group is, and leave an impression by adding value. Just one caveat to add here: newer groups may not have a lot of interaction (yet) but offer the opportunity to “get in on the ground floor” as a key influencer in the group. Don’t overlook these opportunities.

Once you’ve found the right groups to target, Melonie Dodaro (again) outlines a nine-step plan to “become a top contributor in ANY LinkedIn group and then what you should do about it once that happens,” warning that “You’ll need a heavy dose of ACTION along with this knowledge before you see results.” Among her tips: “Pay close attention to the most highly engaging content in the group. What are the specific topics that are evoking strong emotions and discussions? What keywords seem to be popping up in popular discussions? Answering these questions will help you get down to the core interests of the group,” and then develop content likely to resonate with group members.

Guides to B2B Marketing on LinkedIn

Thinking about trying out LinkedIn ads? Wondering if (and how) they work? Dave Rigotti here shares his lessons learned after spending $50K on LinkedIn advertising. Among his findings: LinkedIn is great for driving leads from gated content, though offers and ads should be switched out every six weeks or so, and “The CPCs are significantly (5 – 10X) higher than many other channels, but converts much higher than other social networks. In the end we see the cost/customer as effective.” However—beware of mobile users: “mobile accounts for 47 percent of total traffic to LinkedIn. While this is great for increasing ad impressions, this is generally bad for gated content.”

B2B Marketing: Dominate Through LinkedIn Showcase Pages by SalesPanda

The English is little rough, but Samit Arora here does an outstanding job of explaining how showcase pages are different from other areas of LinkedIn (e.g., 2-column layout; no tabs for careers, products or services; link back directly to the main business page; no employee profiles are associated), how to create a showcase page, and best practices for B2B marketing using showcase pages. (NOTE: This was a great post. Unfortunately, Sales Panda chose to remove it from their website. Such is life.)

Melonie Dodaro (yet again) walks through a “7-step system (that) will help you go from finding prospects on LinkedIn to taking the relationship offline,” from using LinkedIn Advanced Search and groups to idenify prospects to engaging with them on LinkedIn and other social platforms before taking the conversation offline.

Writing that LinkedIn has “grown to be far more than a recruiting solution- offering opportunities for everyone from freelancers to Fortune 500 brands to connect, market, engage, and influence members of the community. And LinkedIn’s Showcase pages enable brands to connect with audiences ion the social platform where they are already learning, networking, and engaging with peers,” Celia Brown explains why and shows how to use showcase pages for industry thought leadership.

Reporting on research from the Wall Street Journal showing that “80% of small business owners, with 200 or fewer employees, use social networks to find new customers and grow their revenue, and…41% of small businesses feel that LinkedIn provides them the most potential to generate business,” Gerry Moran lays out a 10-step plan for small business success on LinkedIn, from the basics (setting up a company page, connecting with local groups) through shining up “your LinkedIn curbside appeal” with a complete and optimized profile.

Melonie Dodaro (one more time) looks at five ways to use LinkedIn to “better connect with leads and prospects,” such as saving successful advanced searches (“LinkedIn’s advanced search tool is also great for finding potential prospects. It offers excellent functionality with the ability to search for people by keywords, relationship, groups, location and industry”) and creating a sequence of messages.

While this is no longer “news,’ for those who haven’t adjusted to LinkedIn’s late summer changes, this post explains what’s gone, what’s taken its place, and how to adjust your business’s LinkedIn company page to take advantage of the new structure.

Writing that “One of the reasons LinkedIn works so well is that it tells us exactly how we’re related to the people in our network (1st, 2nd and 3rd level connections) and the best ways of communicating with them. To a first level connection we can simply send a message, 2nd and 3rd level connections might get an invitation or an introduction,” guest blogger Viveka von Rosen (again) succinctly explains how best to utilize this communications framework.

Guides to Personal Branding on LinkedIn

Marya Jan recaps 30 tips for optimizing your use of LinkedIn, from using your profile to differentiate your skills (rather than being boring), using the new header image, and providing case studies, to optimizing your profile (“Use [keywords] throughout in key places like your title, summary and work experience”) and maximizing your endorsements.

Bryan Kramer shares a handful of helpful tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn, from the standard (join groups, keep your profile updated) to the inspiring: “use LinkedIn to establish yourself as an expert. Getting recognized as a top influencer on LinkedIn can have a dramatic effect on your brand. Simply put, people love to identify with an expert. It not only inspires trusts within your prospective client base, but it can open doors in terms of new business ventures.”

Noting that 40% of LinkedIn users log in each day, and “you can reach at least 60% of your audience if you post 20 posts or more a month,” frequent best-of author Neil Patel presents an infographic illustrating the elements of a “perfect LinkedIn profile,” from using a current, professional profile image and “connecting the dots” in your background to asking for and giving recommendations.

Rachel Minion offers helpful tips for establishing your personal brand on LinkedIn, most critically optimizing your summary: “The biggest key here is you want to talk to visitors using a conversational tone that connects with them. Talk about yourself in the same way you would if I’m standing next to you. Allow the conversation to be easy to understand and interpret.”

Andy Foote illustrates how not to be boring on LinkedIn, using three outstanding examples (including Cindy Gallop, whose personal headline is: “I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.”), plus advice on how to think about crafting your own unique, non-boring headline, and why this exercise is worth the effort.

Extending on the information in the post above, Evan Prokop outlines a four-step process for getting the most out of recent LinkedIn profile design changes, from the new image options (“think about what kind of imagery could add a tasteful yet personal touch and tell a story about you and your professional background”) to measuring and comparing your visibility (“The new ‘How You Rank’ report will show where you fit into the top 100 most viewed profiles among your company and first degree connections”).

Mike O’Neil supplies detailed guidance on how to optimally use the LinkedIn profile header (for paid LinkedIn subscribers only), company pages, and showcase pages (“So, what goes in a header image?…You could upload a large image or graphic. Be thinking of something that fits your brand…This is a GREAT OPPORTUNITY should you choose to take advantage of it”).

Eric Holtzclaw passes along half-a-dozen “important lessons…how to use LinkedIn more effectively,” such as segmenting your connections using tagging: “To be successful on LinkedIn you need to ensure all communication with your connections is as personal, specific and targeted as possible. Your connections need to be segmented in their specific fields so that at any given time you are able to effectively communicate with any one of your contacts.”

And Finally…

Is LinkedIn’s value and position as the premier professionally-oriented changing? Eric Wittlake contends it’s at least at risk, due to recent changes that have diminished LinkedIn’s value, such as the gamification of recommendations (“Now LinkedIn prompts us to endorse people for skills they don’t even have, but it’s far easier to click “Endorse” than it is to actually edit what you are endorsing someone for!”), the diminished value of connections, and “going Facebook” (with the addition of profile header images).

In few professions has the emergence of social media been such a double-edged sword as public relations. On one hand, the “citizen journalism,” blogging, and content-sharing platforms for all types of media have fundamentally altered the traditional print-based business model of professional and trade publications. Information scarcity has been replace by information overload.

There are fewer professional reporters and editors, and they inundated with more noise: it’s estimated there are now four PR professionals for every full-time journalist in the U.S..

Image credit: leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal

On the other, given their skills in relationship-building and content development, PR professionals (should at least) have a natural knack for social media success. And recent changes to Google’s search algorithm which place a premium value on earned links—the kind generated by effective PR and social media engagement—have increased the value PR professionals bring to maximizing overall brand visibility.

How can PR pros best utilize content in this environment? Is there still a role for press releases? If so, how should they be written and distributed to maximize their impact with a shrinking number of over-pitched journalists? How can PR pros use social media tools to identify and connect with key influencers? What do PR pros need to know about SEO?

Find the answers to these questions and many others in more than two dozen of the best guides to social PR practices of the past year.

Guides to PR Content and Press Releases

Pointing out that “The size of the author’s company doesn’t sway an editor’s decision to publish an article — it has to be well written, polished, and highly relevant to the publication’s readers to stand a chance,” Maya Szydlowski details best practices for pitching and getting externally produced content published on high-authority news sites.

Shannon Byrne outlines half a dozen “ways content marketing has changed the way we ‘do PR,’” among them: everyone is now a content contributor (“As long as your content is high-quality and not overly promotional, publications will often consider well-written, fresh content with open arms”); publications want to publish thought leaders; and “syndication + guests posts are great alternatives to earned media.”

Mickie Kennedy hands down ten commandments for writing effective press releases, beginning with “Thou shalt have a relevant topic” and “Thou shalt be truthful” and progressing through “Thou shalt proofread” (“Read it. Read it again. Go through every sentence and whittle them down until they’re iron tight. Check your grammar. Check it again.”)

Frequent best-of honoree Lisa Buyer summarizes the high points of a presentation by WordStream CEO Larry Kim. Among them: “use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to pitch directly to media and influencers”; include visual assets (such as infographics) in your content to increase sharing; optimize titles, meta details and image names for SEO; and extend the value of content through repurposing and syndication.

Ever notice how many companies are “leaders” in their respective markets, according to their own press releases? Noting that “Positioning as a ‘leader’ is generally a difficult proposition because every company claims to be a leaders; if everyone is a leader, then leadership as point of differentiation has lost its luster,” Frank Strong suggests nine alternative positioning strategies that are less shopworn and more defensible.

To help PR pros craft better, more effective news releases, Robert Wynne here compiles “unfiltered, honest, sometimes brutal yet always helpful, responses from some of the top journalists at publications including The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Mashable, Popular Science, Tech Crunch and Yahoo!.”

As Monty Python used to say, “and now for something completely different“: this Scoop.it curation from Jeff Domansky is a fantastic resource for the latest articles, blog posts, infographics and other content related to the intersection of PR and social media. The content changes frequently so it’s worthwhile checking in here often.

Writing that “The research on the impact of visuals in press releases, blog posts and even tweets is nearly unanimous: Images drive interest and that interests lasts longer,” Frank Strong (again) passes along his three favorite free, quick, and relatively easy methods for finding or creating images to supplement text content.

Quantifying the importance of building a rich online newsroom, Lisa Buyer (again) writes that “More than half of the journalists surveyed visit an online brand newsroom at least once a week, with 25.2% of them visiting newsrooms daily. And lest you think online brand newsrooms appeal only to traditional journalists, they are also being accessed by bloggers, tweeters, customers, potential investors, anyone who is interested in your company.” She then provides eight helpful tips for optimizing an online newsroom, including knowing your brand’s audience and using a team approach.

Guides to PR and Influencer Research

Adam Connell reviews eight helpful tools to help identify the key influencers on any topic, including NOD3x (powerful though not cheap at $160 per month), BuzzSomo (only covers Twitter, but free), and Authority Spy (an inexpensive tool that works with Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Klout).

Adam Heitzman details a five-step plan to use “social influencers to build your brand,” starting out with spending time to find the right influencers (for which the post above may be helpful) and progressing through always paying it forward (“If a social influencer is writing great things about your company, do the same. Commenting and engaging with a social influencer’s content is great, but take it one step further by actually promoting it on your own social pages”).

Shawn Hewat shares her “top 4 tips to start building an ideal list of influencers” for outreach efforts, ranging from power searches on Google to investigating blog rolls (still a solid resource on older blogs, though sadly not used or maintained as regularly today as in the past).

Guides to PR and Social Media

Gina Joseph reports on findings from Cision’s State of Social Media for PR Pros survey, such as: Facebook (used by 88% of respondents) and Twitter (85%) remain the most popular social sharing platforms for PR pros and their clients. But only 44% use any type of paid content promotion on social networks. And “less than half of our survey respondents have successfully pitched a journalist or outlet via social…traditional methods such as using a media database to target specific beats remains ever-important.”

Jim Dougherty presents an infographic from Vocus illustrating how journalists view social media. Among other findings: about half of journalists use social media to connect with viewers and readers, and to promote their stories; but 95% don’t believe social media is completely trustworthy, and 91% still prefer to be pitched by email.

Guides to PR and Guest Posting

Frequent best-of honoree Ian Cleary suggests seven “ways to maximize the value of guest posting” (and stay out of trouble with Google), ranging from posting on highly authoritative sites within your market or industry niche (“Google likes to see that you hang out with good company”) to writing great, detailed content (the top results in Google often have more than 2,000 words).

Responding to comments made by Matt Cutts about guest blogging and Google’s subsequent actions against using the practice merely for link building, Frank Strong (yet again) advises PR pros on how to use guest blogging and backlinks in ways “that will help keep PR out of the Google penalty box.”

Guides to PR and SEO

While it would be an overstatement to say that (legitimate) press releases no longer have any SEO value, Google algorithm modifications clearly changed the landscape last year. This post quantifies the result of changes for sites like PRWeb.com and Businesswire.com, but also notes more positively that “the days of the press release for legitimate reasons, earnings reports, technology innovations, acquisitions, etc, are still very alive & well.”

Promising information that “will make you an expert on everything you need to know about SEO in Public Relations without any headache and avoiding all slang,” Adelina Peltea concisely covers the basics of backlink analysis, keyword research, how Google treats links in press releases, and more.

Kevin Bailey believes PR pros are well-positioned to help with SEO in the post-Penguin era, writing: “The (links) that really move the needle come from the established media outlets that cite them all over the web—the industry media outlets with large engaged audiences and domain authorities in the high 90s…PR pros have a huge leg up in terms of earning the hard links. They have the ability to reach top media outlets and get content assets covered—content assets that are more about solving a large problem in a given industry than they are about touting a brand and its products.” True, which is why PR and SEO are two key components of a broader web presence optimization strategy.

Guides to Journalist Pitching, Media Relations, and Blogger Outreach

Noting that “an email has to be really compelling to avoid the delete key. Journalists get more email than most of us: some journalists receive over a hundred email pitches a day from PR people…to stand out among such intense competition and get opened, an email pitch has to be just about perfect,” Lucy Siegel provides a dozen suggestions for effective email pitches to journalists (and writes that most are just as valid as email marketing tips). For example: “Brevity Is Key to Getting Read. After the lede, get to the point right away by covering the basics: who, what, when, where, why and how. Don’t sell, tell.”

Ana Hoffman details 10 ways to get the attention of influential bloggers, journalists or other influencers in your industry, from linking out “shamelessly and unceasingly” to their content, to writing weekly roundups (with some value-added content–not just a collection of links), to quoting them (with detailed instructions on how to do this effectively).

Austin Cross entertainingly shares his “10 commandments of pitching” to the media, from research and personalization (“Not only does the ‘spray and pray’ method require no skill or effort, but it is also arguably the least effective way to pitch”) to scrapping the call script and talking to journalists as if they are real people. (Most of them are.)

Observing that “It’s not uncommon for someone at a loud bar not to hear you the first time, or even twice. If you assume someone isn’t interested in getting to know you better just because they don’t hear you the first or second time, then you’re doomed. The Internet is the busiest, loudest, most distracting place ever created,” Chris Abraham outlines the three characteristics needed to “score the digits in content marketing.”

Jesse Wynants provides half a dozen helpful tips for reaching journalists. For starters, build relationships first: “If you want journalists to pay attention to your brand, you need to build a mutually beneficial relationship long before you ever reach out with a pitch.”

Adam Connell (again) offers nine tips for crafting “the perfect outreach email” for bloggers, starting with keeping it relevant (“take the time to check out the blog that you’re contacting”) and proceeding through keeping the pitch short and reaching out on social media before sending an email.

This infographic illustrates a seven-step process for obtaining media coverage for a start-up (or a new product), from creating your story and tying it into larger trends to offering exclusivity (offering an exclusive to the right outlets makes journalists “more likely to write about your story”) to promoting exclusive features.